


Death Of Optimus Prime

by BlairDrakko



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Angst, Heavy Angst, M/M, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 15:38:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18897607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlairDrakko/pseuds/BlairDrakko
Summary: The death of Optimus.





	Death Of Optimus Prime

**Author's Note:**

> So... I started this as a thought, what could I write that was short and yet emotionally compelling. So many of my stories are hundreds of thousands of words long, which is nice and helps development in characters but, could I produce such emotions in a small moment?  
> Thus this story was born... I aimed for only 1000 words but I am awful at keeping things too short, soo... I obviously went over that amount.  
> Still, to produce a story of loss, love, and perhaps...Hope, at the end of it...  
> Either way, I hope you enjoy it, though it is rough. Life is short, remember to smile, when you can. ;)

Ratchet’s dull, dim optics stared at the monitors before him, his processor not even filtering through the information presented there any longer, he didn’t need to. He understood perfectly well what was happening.

**_Optimus…_ **

He tore his burning gaze from the screens, his helm lowering as he scanned over Optimus’s ruined frame. 

He had done all he could...

Breems of surgery, of welding, fighting for the life, the spark of his oldest friend, his leader, his Prime but it didn’t matter…

**_None of it mattered…_ **

The medic looked down at his own energon encrusted frame, his trembling servos and back to Optimus. “I… I tried.” He whispered to unconscious mech, his voice seeming to boom in the now silent room. He had detached all of the loud alarms, their insistent beeping, screeching, _wailing_ each sound reminding him of just how drastically he had failed, so he had unplugged them all.

He sighed as he peered at the med bay doors, fear clenching around his spark, suffocating it as he thought about how he would have to face the team soon. He would have to be the one to tell them… Tell them…

**_I failed._** He thought darkly even as his servos rubbed his own chestplates. **_That is… If I make it out of this as well._**

Optimus groaned weakly, pulling the medic’s helm from the doorway and he smiled softly as the Prime’s dim optics opened just a crack and peered at him. “H-hello, o-old f-friend.” Optimus strangled out, his voice thick and filled with static.

Ratchet’s smile widened, he had stopped telling Optimus not to speak a few breems ago, when he had realized there was nothing he could do for the mech but, but make his passing as painless as possible.

“Hello.” Ratchet replied gently, his frame moving closer before he lifted himself up to sit next to Optimus on the berth. “How are you feeling? Any more pain?”

Optimus’s optics flickered for a moment, his wet vents gurgling and Ratchet tensed as he wondered if this would be the moment of death, yet he relaxed as Optimus merely coughed some more before the light came back to his optics.

“B-better. No, no p-pain now…” Optimus said wearily and Ratchet nodded approvingly, his optics burning terribly as he slipped his servos around the dying mech’s tightly.

“Good, good… I, I am happy I can give that to you, at least.” Ratchet whispered, his digits slowly rubbing Optimus’s cooling servo as he held it. He could feel the many scars that covered the larger mech’s knuckles, each holding a story of war, of struggle… **_Primus why couldn’t you let him see peace again? It has been so long, so very long since any of us have seen peace._**

Another flair of pain ripped through Ratchet’s spark and he almost gasped because of it but forced himself to smile instead. He didn’t want Optimus to focus on _his_ suffering, he didn’t want the larger mech to focus on anything but himself, for once in his s-short life.

Of course, Optimus was no fool and even as he lie dying, his mind and spark were aware of others. “Ratchet… Pain?” Prime asked, his optics narrowing as he pulled his servo from the medic’s and placed it against Ratchet’s chest plates.

A sob caught in Ratchet’s throat as he shook his helm, his optics burning with coolant as he encircled Optimus’s much larger servo with both of his. “Not so much.” He assured, chuckling lightly as Optimus gave him that critical look. “You forget how strong I am, Optimus… I am insulted.” He chastised with a smirk and was rewarded with a brilliant, albeit pain ridden smile from his Prime.

“F-forgive my p-poor a-assumptions…” Optimus joked back, his frame shivering as he vented deeply. “Ratchet, I… I am tired and, and c-cold. L-lay with m-me?”

The medic nodded slowly, keeping his smile bright as he lifted the rest of his frame onto the berth and carefully snuggled into the small space that remained. It was a tight fit, Optimus’s frame almost taking up the entire berth, but neither mech cared.

To Ratchet, he reveled in the closeness, here he could look into Optimus’s brilliant optics perfectly, he could delight in the scent of the mech, and wrap him in his arms to keep him warm. **_His frame is so cold now…_**

“Optimus, what was your favorite thing about Earth?” Ratchet asked quietly, his helm tucked into the crook of the larger mech’s neck as he nestled close.

Optimus coughed a bit more, his vents rasping as he fought from falling to the sleep, the blackness that called to him. “B-Besides you?” He asked with a weak laugh and Ratchet smiled.

The Prime relaxed his frame, his optics shuttering as he thought. “T-the s-sky… I th-think.”

Tears finally fell from Ratchet’s optics, his processor running through numerous memory files of the two of them watching the sun rise or set together. In those memories it was always him and Optimus, their frames leaning against one another, servos touching as they basked in the glory of nature and each other.

Another flair of pain cruelly pulled him from those memories and this time the medic did gasp out. His spark fluxed wildly inside of him. It was as if it was trying desperately to reach out and hold tight to the energy that was slipping from its grasp. **_Optimus… You are slipping too fast… Can’t you stay, just a little longer? Please?_**

Optimus vented painfully, his back arching slightly as his engine revved high and sputtered and Ratchet, Ratchet held him as tightly as he could. **_I am so sorry… So, so sorry…_**

Finally the attack seemed to ebb, and the Prime fell back to the berth. His faceplates were almost white, and dermas trembling as he turned towards Ratchet. It took shutting down power to most of his systems to open his optics once more, rerouting the flow of energy so he could hazily gaze at the smaller mech, one last time. “I l-love you, R-Ratchet…”

The medic smiled sadly as Optimus’s optics flickered faintly at him, he could see how hard his mate was struggling to stay with him and as much as he appreciated it, longed for just a bit more time he knew Optimus would just continue to struggle and prolong his pain until he had Ratchet’s permission to go.

“And I, I love you, Optimus… Come now, let’s rest ok?” Ratchet said with a telling nod as he lifted his helm and kissed his love’s cold lips softly.

Optimus sighed under Ratchet’s kiss, his spark relaxing and field releasing as his permission was granted, he didn’t need to fight anymore.

His frame fell limp then, engine falling to a soft purr as it slowly shutdown, his hidden gears and cabling easing in their whirling and tension and soon, only his spark remained active.

Ratchet witnessed it all, his audials picking up on the ease of machinery, his wet optics watching as Optimus’s chassis stopped rising with each vent, and it was then the ache it his spark eased for a klik.

As Optimus’s chestplates opened, his glittering spark rising from his chest and for a moment it hung there, just above the Matrix as if… As if waiting.

Ratchet gasped as his own spark pulled towards Optimus’s, longing to be with it, to follow it on its next journey and suddenly he was presented with a choice; to stay here, to stay with the Autobots and help them, guide them in Optimus’s absence or… Or follow his love.

The medic weakly looked towards the med bay doors, he knew the team all sat out there lost and afraid. They were all so young and the loss of Optimus could crush them but, but to lose Ratchet as well?

Optimus’s spark flickered slightly before it began to drift higher, further from Ratchet’s and the medic sobbed as it left him. He didn’t feel Optimus was asking him to follow, just waiting so that he wouldn’t need to pass alone, the decision to stay was Ratchet’s and Ratchet’s alone…

 “O-Optimus…” Ratchet called to the spark, his voice gruff and agony ridden. Should he stay, should he be the rock they would all need now? They needed him more than Optimus did, but… What did _he_ need, what did _he_ want?

“Ahhh, gods. W-what do I… I don’t know what to…” He moaned, Optimus floating further and further away as the kliks passed and with each inch, each centimeter his love’s spark drifted away from him another splinter tore through his own.

His vents became ragged, his indecision burning through him like acid. Stay and be the broken hero or leave, abandon them all but, but be happy, be whole, be loved…

Just as Optimus’s spark began to flash, its light dissipating as it moved on to whatever realm was the next, Ratchet took in a shaky desperate vent and lifted his trembling servo towards the sky. “W-wait! Wait love… Wait f-for _me_ …”

……………….

Arcee quietly opened the med bay doors, her frame stiff and optics lowered as she entered the cold room. It had been too long, too long since Ratchet sent them all away and she knew someone had to check eventually…

Her heels clicked along the metal floor as she walked, the sound echoing loudly in the silent chamber… She knew what she would find here, she had known the last time she saw Ratchet’s faceplates and honestly, she didn’t blame him.

As she raised her helm, her dim optics lifting until they found the berth of her leader she smiled sadly at the scene before her.

Two grey frames lie next to one another on the small berth, Optimus’s spark chamber open and the Matrix glowing invitingly within but other than that, there was no light coming from the two mechs.

She steeled her spark as she walked closer, her optics growing soft as they trailed along Ratchet’s arm that lay across his love, still holding him even after death, and as she moved to the top of the berth tears fell as she found a warm, and content smile on the dead medic’s faceplates.

There was no pain in this picture of death, no regret on either faceplate… No, all she found there was two warriors, two lovers finally at peace…

She reached into Optimus’s spark chamber, her shaking servos lifting the Matrix out carefully before closing his chestplates respectfully and turning back to the doors she had entered through. She grated her denta together anxiously as she peered down at the Matrix.

Its power vibrated loudly through the relic and it almost seemed to be singing, or calling out to someone, but who? Who would take up the mantle of Prime now, who was worthy of it? Who were they to follow? What were they to do?

The lover’s journey, their battles were finally at an end but for the rest of the Autobots… Their hardest and darkest struggles may have just begun…

As she walked out of the med bay, her spark cold and processor whirling with how she would tell the other’s Bulkhead suddenly ran up to her, his optics wide and vents rapid. “Arcee, transmission just came through! There is a ship on its way! They’re Autobots and are requesting a landing sight.”

Arcee blinked, her processor trying to work past the devastating loss to understand what the green mech was telling her. “Wh-what? Who?” She stuttered out, hiding the Matrix behind her back for the moment.

“Umm, I don’t know him, but he says his designation is Hot Rod?”

**Author's Note:**

> Totally added the last part because I felt bad for the others, so now they will have a little hope.


End file.
